Japan’s jobless rate rises to 4.2% in December

Unemployed Japanese people search through job vacancies at an employment bureau in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Tokyo: Japan’s jobless rate stood at 4.2% in December, edging up from 4.1% in the previous month, the government said on Friday.

For the entire 2012 period, the unemployment rate fell 0.3% on-year to 4.3%, marking two straight years of improvement, according to the internal affairs ministry.

The December data, slightly higher than market expectations of 4.1%, comes after Japan’s new government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled a huge stimulus plan aimed at boosting jobs and ending years of deflation.

The number of unemployed people in December fell 6.2% from a year ago to 2.59 million.

But the number of employed people also fell 0.6% from a year earlier to 62.28 million, the ministry said.